Apparatus for evaporating or distilling.



No. 760,440. PATENTED MAY 24 1904.

J. s. FORBES. A APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING 0E DISTILLING.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. '7. 1903.

N0 MODEL.

UNITED STATES Patented May 24, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING OR DISTILLING- SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 760,440, dated May 24, 1904.

I Application filed August 7, 1903. Serial No. 168,676- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J OHN S. FORBES, a citizen of the United States, residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvaniahave invented certain Improvements in Apparatus for Evaporating or Distilling, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to certain improvements in apparatus .for evaporating or distilling liquids, having for its object the provision of a device by which such operation may be carried out more efliciently than has heretofore been possible, a further object of the invention being to arrange the various parts of the structure so that they may be assembled or taken apart for inspection and repair with comparative ease.

An additional object of the device is to provide means for the evaporation or distillation of liquids of such a nature that it shall be possible to operate it without the necessity for the frequent cleaning or blowing off which has hitherto-been characteristic of this type of apparatus.

The particular form of apparatus hereinafter described is especially designed for the production of distilled water from sea-water, although it will be understood that it is equally. well adapted for economically concentrating or distilling many other kinds of liquid.

The above-noted objects I attain as hereinafter set forth, reference being had to the ac companying drawings, in which Figure l is a sectional elevation, to some extent diagrammatic, illustrating one form of my improved apparatus and showingthe relative arrangements of the various parts thereof; and Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation taken on the line 2 2, Fig. 1, further illustrating the construction of my improved device and showing the compressor as suitably connected thereto.

In the above drawings, A represents a casing, which in the present instance is in the form of a horizontally placed cylinder, having dished heads and covered with any of the well-known forms of heat-insulating material, (indicated at a.) A second casing B of similar 5 form is placed below the casing A and serves,

in the apparatus shown, to support the same, the device as a whole being carried upon a base structure B. The two cylinders A and B are in communication through a passage Z1, and there are in the upper cylinder A two series of castings a and (i the upper set of these, a, being formed with projections or fingers a by which they are carried upon the flanges of the beam a*, suitably supported in any manner within the casing A. The castings a are placed in the lower portion of the casing A and are similarly provided with projections a, which engage a beam a, preferably of T- section, either carried directly on the bottom of the casing or suitably supported in any desired manner. These castings e and a are connected in pairs by lengths of pipe at, lying in planes substantially at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the casing, and the individual castings are held together by bolts a extending longitudinally through them and held in position by nuts, as shown. A heating-coil C is placed between the convolutions of the pipes (J, said coil being also formed in convolutions and lying in a horizontal plane, as shown in the figure. All of the castings a are in direct communication with each other, and there is a pipe d connected, as shown in Fig. 1, to one end of said series of castings. This pipe (Z passes out of the casing A and communicates with the outlet of a compressor D,- whose inlet-pipe dis connected to a vaporseparator d, to which is also connected a vapor-intake pipe d placed in the upper portion of the casing A.

The compressor B may be of any suitable construction and in the case illustrated is shown as operated by means of an electric inotor (r.

A screen or perforated plate d extends across the upper portion of the casing A between the intake-pipe d and the top of the pipe (land the castings a, said screen being provided for the purpose of preventing as far as possible the priming or violent ebullition of the liquid under treatment.

Within the lower casing B are placed three heat'exchanges E, F, and G, and each of these is preferably formed of a number of pairs of castings c, f, and g, the members of each pair from one end of its uppermost portion to the 7 interior space of the casing A, said pipe extending, as shown in Fig. 1, through the opening 6, connecting the casing A and B, and lying along the bottom of said former casing, so that its end or opening is at the end of said casing farthest from the opening A pipe 6* extends from a point in the heat-exchange E at the bottom of the same and diametrically opposite from the point of entrance thereinto of the pipe 0 to a suitable outlet for the liquid which has been boiled and partially evaporated or concentrated. The pipef connects one'end of-the upper casting of the heatexchange F with one of the castings (0?,- this latter being, preferably, at the end opposite the end to which the connectionpf the pipe (Z is made, said casting having also connected to it a pipe a with avalve, as shown. The heating-pipe G is, connected at one end to a source of supply for steam or other heating fluid and at its other end passes out of the casing to a vapor-trap a, from which a pipe 0 passes into the casing A through the opening band is connected to the heat-exchange G. Pipes f* and g pass from portions of the heat-exchangesF and G diametrically opposite the pipes f and a, entering the same to points for the reception of distilled liquid and of condensed fluid from the trap 0, respectively. The heat-exchanges E, F, and G are preferably supported from the sides of the casing B by hooked sections 7), as shown, these having been omitted from Fig. l for the sake of clearness. v. r

In operating my improved apparatus steam or other heating fluid is passed into the coil G, and the liquid to be evaporated-is forced into the casing B through a pipe in thebottom thereof. This incoming liquid risesaround the three heat-exchanges and flowing through the opening 7) enters the casing A, being permitted to rise in this latter until it attains a level above the tops ofthe castings a. The steam or other heating fluid in the pipe 0 shortly raises the liquid within the casing A to its boilingpoint, and upon the compressor D being started the vapor arising from said liquid is exhausted from the casing and is compressed in the sec- .tions (0 and a and in the pipe (0 The result of such action is that the distilled vapor passing through the compressor is condensed in the pipes and sections above noted, yielding up its latent heat as well as its sensible heat to the liquid surrounding said parts. This condensed liquid then passes through the pipe f to the heat-exchange F, and since the latter is completely surrounded by the liquid passing into the casing B it parts with whatever remaining heat it may still possess, finally flowing out through the pipe f* at a temperature practically identical with that of the incoming liquid. When steam is used in the heating-coil (J, the condensed water therefrom is passed through the pipe 0' to the heat-exchange Gr and.from;thence out through the pipe g to Waste or to any receptacle in which it may be preserved, parting in said passage with whatever heat it may contain, and finally flowing out at a temperature also practically the same as that of the distilled liquid in the pipe f.

It will be understood that under ordinary circumstances the liquid within the casing A is not evaporatedto any great degree of concentration, but continually passes out through the pipe 0 to the heat-exchange E and the outlet-pipe 6 during which passage it parts with its heat to the incoming body of fresh liquid in the casing B to such an extent that it also leaves the apparatus at a temperature little, if

any, above that of the incoming fluid.

From the above it will be seen that in the operationof obtain-ing distilled Water from sea-water I am enabled'to utilize to the greatest possible extent all of. the energy supplied to the apparatus, since not only is practically all of the sensible heat of the various fluids employed returned to fresh bodies of the liquid treated, but by the use of the compressor with the condensing-pipes connected thereto and surrounded by the liquid to be evaporated I am enabled to save all of the latent heat lost in condensers of the ordinary type. Further economy of action is secured not only by ex tracting all of the heat from the condensed liquid, but also by saving the heat from the liquidvcondensed in the heating-coil which is necessarily employed to start the operation of the device and to provide for what little radiation takes place in spite of the heat-insulating material.

I claim as my invention- 1. In an apparatus for evaporating or distilling, the combination of a container having evaporating and condensing compartments, means including a compressor connecting said compartments, means for permitting liquid to flow out ofthe evaporating-compartment, with means for transferring both the heat contained in liquidpassing out of the condensing-compartment and also the heat in the liquid passing out of the evaporating-compartment to the fresh liquid flowing into said evaporatingcompartment, substantially as described.

2. In an apparatus for evaporating or distilling, the combination of a container having evaporating and condensing compartments, means including a compressor connecting said compartments, a second container connected to the evaporating-compartment for the reception of liquid passing to said compartment,

and independent containers within said second container having means for connecting them respectively to the condensing-compartment and to a point within the evaporating-compartment relatively distant from the point of connection of the two main containers, substantially described.

3. The combination of a container having an evaporating and a condensing compartment, means for exhausting the vapor from the evaporating-compartment and compressing it in the condensing-compartment, conduits for the reception of liquid flowing to and from the evaporating-compartment and a conduit for liquid flowing from the condensing-compartment, said conduits being arranged so that heat contained in the liquid flowing out from said two compartments will be imparted to the liquid flowing into the evaporating-compartment, substantially as described.

4. In an apparatus for evaporating or distilling, the combination of a container having evaporating and condensing compartments,

ing-compartment, substantially as described.

5. The combination of a container having evaporating and condensing compartments, means including a compressor connecting said compartments,means in the container for heating fluid therein, a casing connected to the container and to a source of supply for fluid to be evaporated with conduits in the casing having means whereby they are connected respectively to the heating means, the condensingeompartment and to a point within the evaporating-compartment relatively distant from its point of connection with the casing, substantially as described.

6. The combination of a container, a series of pipes therein, acompressor having its inlet connected to the container and its outlet connected to the series of pipes, a second container connected to the first container, independent series of pipes in the second container, one of the same being connected to the pipes in the first container and another being connected to the interior of said container, substantially as described.

' 7 The combination of two containers, one of the same having a condensing-compartment consisting of a series of units, each unit including two hollow sections connected by a pipe, and the sections of the said units being connected together in two sets, a compressor connected to the interior of the container and to one set of said sections, a second container connected to the first and having within it one series of pipes connected to the second set of said sections of the first container and a sec ond series of pipes provided with an extended portion having an opening within the first container at a point relatively distant from the point of connection of the two containers, substantially as described.

8. The combination of two containers connected together, the first having within it two series of hollow sections and pipes connecting the same in pairs, a compressor connected to the compartment formed by said sections and pipes and to the interior of the container, and independent series of units in the second container, each unit being formed of hollow sections connected by a pipe, one of said series being connected respectively to the condensing-compartment in the first container and another series being connected to the said first container at a point distant from the point of its connection with the second container, substantially as described.

9. The combination of two containers connected together, with a compressor, a series of pipes in the first container connected together in multiple and in communication with the compressor, the compressor being also connected to the first container, with independent series of pipes in the second container, also connected in multiple, one of said series being connected to the pipes in the first container and the other being arranged to receive liquid passing out of the first container, substantially as described.

10. The combination of a container having within it a supporting-beam, a series of hollow sections hung therefrom and forming a condensirig-compartment, a compressor connected to the container and to the condensing-compartment, with independent series of pipes in connection with the container and with the said compartment, and a casing surrounding the same, said casing being connected to the container for the reception of liquid prior to its entrance into said container, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN S. FORBES.

WV itnesses:

W ILLIAM E. BRADLEY, J os. H. KLEIN. 

